Megan Rickards 
Megan returns to the Colossus to get to grips with “The High Tower” episode of Disney’s new animated series
After two/three episodes, depending on if you count the premiere episode as one or two episodes, it was refreshing to get this one. Not only do we get answers to a few questions, some that I feel came much too soon, but we also see a certain character getting better at their job. Unlike in many shows, it’s not too good too fast. While this character does still make mistakes, they are believable for someone still learning how to function undercover.
Out of the few episodes we’ve seen thus far, this is the one that has made me most want to come back and see more, for a reason other than just to keep up with the Star Wars fandom. While there are a few parts that could have been improved, which will be addressed later in the spoiler section of this review, as a whole it worked pretty well to further the overall story for the season. There was a good amount of comedy and character building to keep my interest at least through the next episode. Whether this continues through the rest of the season, of course, remains to be seen.
In the meantime, this episode opens with Captain Doza ordering a power rationing for the next one-hundred hours in an effort to disguise his interactions with the First Order. Not that it works very well since apparently everyone on the Colossus knows what he is doing. Good, logical effort though. With nothing else to do until the power rationing ends, the Fireball crew, strangely minus Yeager, finds their way to Aunt Z’s, aka the local hangout spot for many crews. Not long after their arrival, we begin to find out why Captain Doza is doing this. According to Aunt Z herself, the reason the power rationing occurs every so often is solely due to Captain Doza meeting and working with the First Order; And who do we know that is looking for a First Order spy?
Luckily for many viewers, he is getting better at this part of his assignment for the Resistance. While his skills could still use some work, such as not whispering to BB-8 in a public place and instead just giving him a look or something, overall it’s nice to see his improvement happening at a believable rate. At the least, he is no longer metaphorically holding a neon sign over his head screaming that he is a spy for the Resistance.
While at Aunt Z’s, Kaz bumps into the local celebrity and ace pilot for the Colossus, Hype Fazon who, despite having better living and dining arrangements up in the High Tower, is strangely deciding to slum it for a bit in this well-known spot. Due to his rank as an ace pilot, the only real work he has to do outside of protecting the station from pirate attacks is help load and unload routine shipments of fuel, food, and other miscellaneous supplies. Unlike normal, Hype was told to simply be…elsewhere during this interaction with the First Order that everyone on the Colossus seems to know about. This is despite Captain Doza’s best effort to ration the power and avoid this exact knowledge.
As is the way of things on this and many similar shows, Hype and Tam (one of Kaz’s partners on the Fireball crew), not only know each other but also have a history…not that type of history. Get your heads out of the gutters people, this is a Disney show. Theirs is the type of history where they worked together until Hype was recruited as an ace pilot for the Colossus while Tam was forced to stay where she was. Not long after, he obviously developed a huge ego and completely forgot about her…until now that is. The question is, why?
Completely ignoring Hype’s previously strained history with Tam, Kaz accepts his invitation up to the High Tower for both him and his crew member. While part of his immediate acceptance of the offer is due to his desire to see what so few on The Colossus get to see, the other part is his desire to get close to the captain and discover his status as a potential First Order spy. Carefully picking his moment, Kaz slips away from his small group and scouts around until he finds a servant droid taking food into Captain Doza’s office. Awkwardly distracting the droid, Kaz manages to slip a communication link connected to his own, onto the droid’s tray in order to listen in to the conversation between the First Order guard sent to the station and Captain Doza.
While Kaz’s distraction of the droid could have used some work, (has a droid lost weight, seriously Kaz, you’re lucky that droid was so stupid), the tactic was a smart one…for someone of his skill level. A smarter person would have found a way to slip a listening device into Captain Doza’s office sooner and in a more secure location, but again, Kaz is just beginning. Can’t be too hard on him…yet.
As it turns out, Captain Doza is not a spy for the First Order. Rather, he is a simple man trying to keep the station alive and his daughter provided for, while fending off pirates and members of the First Order who would rather have it under their tyrannical rule, much like Lando Calrissian with Cloud City. Like his predecessor, Captain Doza is also known to work with those in the illegal market in order to keep his platform operation up and floating so to speak; something that the First Order guard uses against him when Captain Doza threatens to report them to the New Republic for their own crimes.
Basically at this point, one can tell that Captain Doza is in a tight spot. Either he can take his chances against the ever-growing number of pirate attacks threatening the Colossus until it finally fails due inadequate fuel supplies, or he can work with the First Order so it can remain open. His only other choice at this point would be to report them to the New Republic and get locked away with them for working with illegal shippers and traders simply to keep the station open on his own. Force forbid anything actually gets done in the New Republic and his station legally provided with fuel, food and other necessities in a timely manner…or rather at all.
In an honest effort to uncover any information he can, Kaz accidentally left his communication link on as the servant droid left Captain Doza’s office behind the First Order guards. As a result, once the two devices come within range of each other, they emit a loud shrill noise that alerts the guards to Kaz’s presence and forces him to run.
In an effort to escape his pursuers, he ducks into a random room. As it turns out, this room wasn’t so random after all. It is Torra Doza’s room, i.e. the room of the captain’s daughter. Not a place a teenage boy wants to be caught in under normal circumstances for…reasons. Wanting to help him, despite not knowing why he’s running from the First Order, she quickly ushers him out her window and on to a small ledge, closing it mere seconds before the troopers come in, and doing her best to act normal and redirect them.
Having just narrowly escaped the white armored troopers, Kaz is then forced to run the small ledge and jump across a few moderately sized gaps in order to continue escaping his potential captors. All the while, he attracts the attention of first Neeku, then Aunt Z who in turn attracts everyone else’s attention to Kaz on placing bets on how long he will last before falling to his death. While he comes close a couple times, being the main character, he, of course, manages to survive and duck into a hallway away from the troopers.
The problem with this is that in the process, he not only manages to catch the attention of all the patrons in Aunt Z’s but also that of the captain. I would imagine that in the coming episodes, a lot more attention will be placed on him not only by the residents of the Colossus that had seen his escape but also by Captain Doza as he looks closer into this mysterious new mechanic. Not good for someone who is supposed to be laying low collecting information on a potential First Order spy.
To my mind, this could go a few ways. The first being that Captain Doza quickly discovers Kaz’s role as a spy for the Resistance and does nothing. The second being Captain Doza discovers Kaz’s real objective and quietly kicks him off, not wanting to be caught by the First Order. The third being, after discovering Kaz’s real objective publically kicks him off in order to make an example out of him for those watching and for any First Order spies to report back. The final and most likely thing I could see happening is Captain Doza discovering Kaz’s real mission and quietly working with him in order to uncover the spy together. Whether this happens over the next few episodes or throughout the course of the rest of the season is hard to say right now. Currently, we don’t have much information about Captain Doza, so it’s difficult to say at this moment. The only thing that is certain is that he will inevitably find out at some point.
Overall, this was a solid episode, with good character building and comedy. I can honestly say that I would not mind watching this one again. My interest and hope are now a bit more renewed in this show. How fast is Kaz going to be caught by Captain Doza and what is he going to do with Kaz once he is caught? Interesting questions to think about.
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
I am a major “Star Wars” fan who currently writes for Future of the Force and is absolutely loving it! Until my writing career really takes off, I am now writing for Future of the Force full time, having graduated Spring 2018 with my Bachelor’s Degree in Literature and Writing.
My other interests include ABC’s “The Good Doctor”, CW’s “Arrow” and “The Flash”, and DC’s “Batman”. Of all the iterations of Batman, my favorite would definitely have to be 1992’s “Batman: The Animated Series”.
If you want to stop by and talk, please feel free to send me a tweet. I promise to get back to you as soon as I can.
